The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased.
Various types of passive circuit components may be fabricated on a semiconductor wafer. For example, a resistor may be formed using one or more metal lines in a metal layer. However, traditional resistors on a semiconductor wafer cannot withstand a high voltage, for example a voltage greater than about 100 volts. Also, these traditional resistors lack design guidelines and may not have an efficient layout.
Therefore, while existing methods of fabricating semiconductor resistor devices have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in every aspect.